Butterscotch, 2dr HEL, Wife's Build

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

The last time we went offroading, in early February, when we were airing up, my wife noticed something different on her Bronco, (I thought I had a pic of it, but couldn't find it...), she hit something against the passengers side running board and bent the bracket upwards. It didn't cause any body damage, but we couldn't get the bracket pushed back down, so she decided on installing some OEM rock rails.


Took me over a month to find a stock set of rock rails and the only ones I could find close by, were for a 4 door..., but at least they had the mounting brackets, for $100, plus about a 2 hour round trip.

When she got home from work that afternoon, I started modifying the rails to fit the 2 door.

I believe I cut off 15.5" of the rear part of the rails?

And these are the 2 mounts you'll use for the 2 door. These would be the middle mounts for the 4 door.

I ordered her some IAG steps, since she's 5'3" I will post pics of them, once I install them.

Wish I’d seen this earlier. Replaced my 2 Dr rock rails with RCI frame mounted.

Would have at least met you halfway from Atlanta if not come to see my family in Huntsville.

No, we’ve never met, but followed your posts and love how you and your wife wheel.

Beer is very pursuasive as well. Ha ha!

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[Badland-Mansquatch-ATX]

Because:

Beautiful Bronco in its natural element.

 

[Badland-Mansquatch-ATX]

Took them both out this morning to get a pic together!

Love both of them. I have a 4-door for the practicality of my situation, but I have constant 2-door envy and won’t argue what the “real Bronco” is. Enjoy them together, that’s awesome you guys share the interest.

 

[Mirage]

Wish I’d seen this earlier. Replaced my 2 Dr rock rails with RCI frame mounted.

Would have at least met you halfway from Atlanta if not come to see my family in Huntsville.

No, we’ve never met, but followed your posts and love how you and your wife wheel.

Beer is very persuasive as well. Ha ha!

No problem, she hit something the last time we went riding in early February and I'd been looking since then...

Thanks for following us, we wish we could go riding more, but we now have 3 dogs and no family members to house sit for us anymore, crazy how much things have changed over the last 10 years...

Bunch of us are going riding near Tuscaloosa next month, if you think you want to go? There are even people from the Gulf Shores Bronco group planning on going to it! I've been wanting to do this trail since we had the TJR in 2014!

You get to drive through this mountain! I think the leader said it only takes maybe 2.5 hours to do the whole thing, but he said there's plenty of exploring to do for us adventurous ones left over

 

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

No problem, she hit something the last time we went riding in early February and I'd been looking since then...

Thanks for following us, we wish we could go riding more, but we now have 3 dogs and no family members to house sit for us anymore, crazy how much things have changed over the last 10 years...

Bunch of us are going riding near Tuscaloosa next month, if you think you want to go? There are even people from the Gulf Shores Bronco group planning on going to it! I've been wanting to do this trail since we had the TJR in 2014!

You get to drive through this mountain! I think the leader said it only takes maybe 2.5 hours to do the whole thing, but he said there's plenty of exploring to do for us adventurous ones left over

Outside of Talladega and that nasty OHV park near Cullman, never knew of many wheeling spots when I lived in Birmingham. Guess a few of my hiking spots, but was harder to identify back then before the phone apps unless you just knew. North Alabama is another story, plenty to wheel up there.

I’ll DM you and depended on the date you’re rolling, always nice to make a trip home and Tuscaloosa for sure.

Good to see y’all at least get out when you can. Not sure there is ever enough time. I just love the woods; best part about Georgia for me.

Wish y’all could come to Super Cel, those rigs would be a hit up there. I’ll be there in a few weeks and plan to run some trails at Windrock.

 

[Mirage]

Outside of Talladega and that nasty OHV park near Cullman, never knew of many wheeling spots when I lived in Birmingham. Guess a few of my hiking spots, but was harder to identify back then before the phone apps unless you just knew. North Alabama is another story, plenty to wheel up there.

I’ll DM you and depended on the date you’re rolling, always nice to make a trip home and Tuscaloosa for sure.

Good to see y’all at least get out when you can. Not sure there is ever enough time. I just love the woods; best part about Georgia for me.

Wish y’all could come to Super Cel, those rigs would be a hit up there. I’ll be there in a few weeks and plan to run some trails at Windrock.

The nasty one near Cullman is Stony Lonesome OHV. It used to be so much fun when it was privately owned, but now the county owns it and it's a shithole and so much has changed there or at least in 2023, the last time we went in the JKR... We had 2 newbies behind us and I was taking them on easy/medium trails and the next thing I knew, we almost slid off a cliff! A tree caught us and I almost couldn't winch myself out! That went from an easy trail, to an extreme trail and it was too difficult to turn around and try to go back out!

There's another OHV further south, Morris Mountain, I believe. I heard 10 years ago, that was a rough one, so I could only imagine how bad it is now...?

Where we're going isn't an OHV, I'm not sure what the locals call it, but I know it's near Tuscaloosa?

I'll PM you the details. For some reason, I don't get notifications from this forum anymore, even though everything is turned on that's supposed to tell me....

Thanks, but we're not fans of stuff like that Super Celebration... Honestly, we're not really large events/crowds kind of people... This ride next month has 38 people signed up to go, which is insane and I hope most just stay home and go to the mall, LOL!

 

[Mirage]

Was too exhausted to post these pics last night, but I also installed the LED Under-hood lights in the wife's Bronco!

She ordered some Gloss White Door Handle Covers last year and we misplaced them until finding them last night! I installed them for her.

I also repainted her mirror covers, that we bought almost a year ago! I painted them last year and had some bad runs. I meant to sand out the runs and repaint them in August, but forgot about it, LOL! I found them while cleaning up my garage yesterday, LOL!

I shot them with just plain ole Gloss White for plastics, then used some Ford Gloss clear coat. They came out better this time! I installed them today, after work. I personally don't care for them, but she likes them and it's her Bronco!

 

[Mirage]

Changed the wife's oil last night and installed, the Ronin Factory, easy oil change plug!

Since I believe in using good oil, (your opinion is not needed here), I only use Motorcraft oil in my Ford vehicles! Used 6qts of Full Synthetic 5w30 and a new Motorcraft paper filter/o-rings. Next oil change, hers will get a Baxter adapter, like mine has!

 

[Mirage]

Not really an update on her Bronco, but it's where her Bronco sleeps at night

We've lived in this house for almost 10 years and never updated the attached garage floor until today.

I did remove the old, nasty sheetrock walls in December of 2019 and added much nicer, thicker sheetrock and added good rolled insulation. In the Summer of 2022, I removed the crappy sheetrock on the ceiling and did the same as the walls; new sheetrock and insulation, as well as a HD attic ladder.

The only thing my wife was supposed to do, for this project, was to finish the sheetrock and paint everything, while I did everything else....

Well, here it is, almost the end of 2025 and I finally got her to paint her garage late November and finished it up yesterday actually!

Around Thanksgiving, we talked about what we were going to do to the floors? We thought about what I did to my detached garage 6 years ago, it would've been about $250, but unsure how we would get the dogs out or stay off the floors for 3-4 days... We looked at Race Deck Garage Floors. They had a Black Friday sale going on, but only on certain tiles/colors. I asked the wife what she liked and we made this online:

So, we ordered the tiles on November 29th for $886.08 shipped! That was for:
GarageFlow - Gray - 128pcs
GarageFlow - Black - 138pcs
GarageFlow - Bright Blue - 72pcs
RaceDeck Edges - Black - 14pcs

UPS lost a box, a few days after they shipped... It took damn near 2 weeks to get the replacement box for the one they lost and that replacement box finally arrived this past Friday...

So, the wife finished painted yesterday and early this morning, I started cleaning up the mess and installing the tiles!

We had to offset the double blue center tiles over some, to be inline with the center of the garage door. I know it looks off, but it's actually lined up correctly

See

With the tiles installed and the walls/ceiling finally painted, the garage looks larger to me? Yes, there's a texture in the paint, it's some new technique she found that she wanted to try? Next update in here will be the addition of several storage shelves, painting the walk-in doors and insulating the garage door!

 

[Mirage]

Well, almost 2 years later, I finally wired up my wife's bumper lights to the up-fitters AUX switches! It took a lot longer than I thought it should, but getting to the right "rear" quarter panel Orange/White wire was a total PITA! I did it last at least, drilled holes in the rear and added grommets and wire wrap stuff. So we'll start with what I did last, LOL!

This is the connection I made behind the glove-box door.

Here's the other end of that wire in the right "rear" panel.... My ass, it's nowhere near the rear of the Bronco, it's right behind the front seat....

I routed the new Orange/White wire through wire loom and across the rear of the Bronco.

I drilled two 7/16th's holes and used two 3/8th's grommets, to get the wire on the opposite side of the muffler tip!

I wired her bumper lights up, made a clean ground connection and sprayed undercoating to protect it.

End result! These things are bright AF!

Before the rear lights, I wired up her extra pair of front bumper lights, (that have been installed since I installed her bumper, LOL)!

Here's all 4 front bumper lights on. The other 2 are tied to the OEM fog light button.

Here's the connections at the AUX switch wires under the hood. The 3 left (laying on the brake fluid reservoir) will be the rest of her lights and OBA switch.

I also installed her GMRS radio to a switch, as she had trouble reaching it. Moved the mic magnet to the drivers side, for the same reason. She's 5'3" I have to figure out why that trim piece isn't attached properly?

I bought these very nice switch stickers almost 2 years ago and asked her to pick out what she wanted for each AUX switch

She wants some old school 6" Round KC Daylights on the bumper, so I'm going to have to figure out how to mount them on her DV8 Bumper? She also wants A-Pillar lights. Lastly, she has an ARB single compressor in their portable box, but wants it under the hood.

 

[Mirage]

I have made an updated list of every part added on my wife's Bronco, on the 1st post of this thread, if anyone cares to know?

 

[Mirage]

Changed the oil in the wives Bronco yesterday. The Ronin oil plug thingy, didn't work like it was supposed too, but I've contacted them about it?

Removed the Muffler Skid Plate, Muffler and OEM Rear Storage Box.

So I could "finally" install the new DV8 Larger Rear Storage Box. Here's a comparison of the 2. They say theirs is 54% larger than OEM?

DV8 Box installed and the rest of the essentials underneath were reinstalled. Now, I've got to make her a tool bag! Screw that $400 Bronco Tool Kit!

Lastly, I wanted to move her Portable ARB Single Air Compressor from in that massive box to under the hood.

I used my old ARB Twin Air Compressor under hood mount that I had in my Bronco, modified it slightly for her Single Compressor, ran the switch red wire to her Upfitter #5 switch, lopped off the battery clamps and installed some ring connectors and connected the +/- to the battery and everything works great and frees up more space in the rear of her Bronco!

 

[Mirage]

I have plenty of tools in my Bronco, but I was looking for some decent ones for my wife, in case she needs it them one day? I was pricing some Hart and China Freight stuff and buy the time I got everything I thought I'd need for her Bronco, it was going to cost more than the Bronco tool roll, so I ordered it last week for $305 shipped to the dealer and picked it up yesterday.

Haven't even removed the tools yet, LOL! I will this weekend. I still need to see if I can get a bag for her OBA stuff?

 

[Mirage]

Got the wives tool roll taken care of this morning! It actually fits inside the DV8 rear storage box, as well as some other things!

But, she doesn't have room for her OBA stuff, FA kit, Tire Plug stuff or a future tow strap... So, I have decided to make a rear cargo box/platform, like mine, but a little smaller, as she wants to keep her back seats I should be able to start on it this weekend? I'll post pics when it's finished!

 

[KRAKEN]

Look forward to seeing the project. You are such a nice husband

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